Sunday, May 10, 2009

Sunny Saturdays Return!
Finally - a beautiful Saturday with a mostly clean slate on the calendar. Unfortunately, the only parts of the calendar that were set were somber (a funeral and a visit at the hospital). Maybe it was fitting, since life doesn't just happen - and life is best lived with reflection and with simple indulgences of happiness.

So. With that.. it was a beautiful Saturday.

Saturday lunch happened at Flourishing Garden for Dim Sum. Not exactly sure of everything we ordered, but it was a lot - and it was pretty damn good. We got in right before 12 so we were able to beat any lunchtime rush.

After dim sum, we visited my uncle at the hospital. He's been in and out of the hospital since December and it was my first time to visit. It was humbling. It was sobering. I was caught off guard with his condition. Just a couple of days since his surgery - he was still affected by anesthesia. He was weak. He wasn't speaking as clearly. He was restless. And I talked to my aunt as she focused on her husband's frailty as she attempted to stay strong. I couldn't imagine what she's thinking.

We left the hospital towards no particular destination. She wanted water. I wanted coffee. We were close to De Anza college, so we took that exit and headed towards the shopping center with Coffee Society. The park across the street was hosting the World Journal Mother's Day Festival or something so the parking lot was full. We found a parking spot next to an opening in the shopping center to cut through the inner part of the shops - it's sort of like a courtyard. While walking to the coffee place, we saw people eating frozen yogurt, so we decided to take a detour.

What a great detour. I'm no fro-yo aficionado, but since it was a warm day, I didn't mind getting something sweet and cold. The fruit-named fro-yo joint this time around was The Orange Tree. What surprised me was the flavor of their TARO yogurt. It tasted a lot like the Ube ice cream at Mitchell's in San Francisco. So I jumped all over it. I also got some of the lychee yogurt. She got the same plus some blueberry yogurt that tasted pretty damn good also. Some yogurt places have yogurt with a hint of said flavor. This time around, the flavors were robust. I threw in some ground graham cracker, green apple jelly, lychee jelly, strawberries, almonds, and some walnuts. MMM. Damn. Good. DAMN GOOD DETOUR. It was nice sitting in the courtyard just chillin' with some sun and some shade and sharing some dope ass froyo.

After we stomped through the froyo, we proceeded north on 280. Not having anywhere else to specifically go, we jumped onto the windy ass 84 and headed to Pescadero. I've been wanting to explore the block-and-a-half of the small town since I drove through it on my way to a meeting for work. When we finally got to Pescadero - after the loooong and wiiiinding road - we parked on Stage Rd. and walked said half block. The first Pescadero main-highlight we tried out was the gas station slash Taqueria called Los Amigos and had two carne asada tacos. Pretty good. The carne asada was chopped into small pieces and had some pieces fried so crispy that they were carnitas-like. There was a habanero sauce on the table that I hadn't tried yet called.. I think.. El Yucatero. I put a couple of drops on the first taco and it seemed fine. Not sure what happened with the second taco and if I happened to bite into the motherload of drops but for a few minutes I was sort of TKO'd from the spice to the point that I was tearing. It was good, but it was burning the back of my throat that chips made it worse. It was pretty funny. I'm not all big and bad with spice, but I've never been put to tears. Now I know what it feels like. Good stop.

We mosied over 1 mile to Harley Farms' Goat Farm. It's quite renowned for its great goat cheese. I don't really like goat cheese all that much, but it was interesting to be there. There was some brown sheep. I saw the milking barn. And there were a whole mob of hungry goats congregating towards the barn like they knew it was time to come home. I tried some goat cheese spread that was good but reminded me that I wasn't a big fan of the goat cheese. I also put on some goat milk lotion. I never knew there was such a thing.

After Pescadero, we headed north on Highway 1 and stopped at Pomponio State Beach. The waves were hitting hard. The water was hella cold. And it was enclosed by two huge cliffs that showed layers of generations in rocks. Geology rocks. Yup.

After a lap around the beach taking pictures, trying to be artsy, and me being geologically nerdy - we headed up north to Half Moon Bay. The sun was still out - but we had about 3 1/2 hours left of sunlight as we figured out from a method I learned on TV. We walked around downtown Half Moon Bay for a few minutes and were about to head over the hill before I remembered about Crab Bread. With the beauty of smartphones - we found that the said Crab Bread was available just behind us.

We went to Flying Fish Grill right on Main St. and 92 - next to the fish market and the produce market. We ordered the Cheesy-Crabby Bread, the calamari dinner with grilled vegetables and sweet potato fries. Once again. MMMM. As if it wasn't much of a real epiphany, we agreed: "we've eaten some good ass food today."

We capped off the days proceedings with a quick stop at a fruit stand on 92 and Trader Joe's in San Mateo. Purchases: a crate of strawberries, cherries, two apple pears, grapefruits, and gala apples.

We brought some strawberries to the Fremont Quintanas and headed home where some huge oysters were waiting to be shucked.

And the sun went down. And the DVR turned on. And the fruit was eaten. And all that good stuff. Good Saturday.

Ulam cooked @ 3:02 PM

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